SPEAKER_00 1:05

Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

You can't not do your wicked ways. I mean, if we're we're born sinners, what are we gonna do? We're gonna sin. But we also recognize that when we're cut to the heart and we're stuck in our sin, we recognize I'm stuck in my sin, I can't not sin. And so what do you do? You repent, you turn from that, and you desperately run after Jesus Christ, who has the answer, who will change us from the inside out, who will free us from our sin.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Have you ever thought about what the ultimate mindset might be? It's all about owning up to your mistake and understanding where things went off track. People often struggle to acknowledge their missteps, which means they missed out on valuable opportunities to grow from their experiences. Just like that, the first step to being saved by Jesus is recognizing that you're a sinner and that you truly need his saving grace. Today, Pastor Carl invites you to open your heart and acknowledge your shortcomings. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Peter goes on to explain it a little bit. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried. His tomb is with us to this day. So he wasn't talking about himself, he was talking as if the words of Jesus. Jesus did not stay in the grave. David did, and his bones are still here. Therefore, verse 30 being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that one of the one of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. Peter is saying, David knew that through his line the Messiah would come. And David again is not speaking about himself in this psalm, but he's speaking about the Messiah. Verse 31. He foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus has God raised up, of which we are all witnesses, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear. Jesus said, I must go so that the helper will come. The helper is the gift of the Holy Spirit from the Father. So when Jesus resurrected from the dead and ascended into heaven, he received the Holy Spirit from the Father, and he sent the Holy Spirit to earth to birth the church. And Peter is saying, all that was all part of the plan. And that's what you're seeing today. You're seeing the power of God, the Holy Spirit come upon him. It's the promise of the Father. And he's here and now and working in our midst. David talked about it. David's dead. David was talking about the Messiah. The Messiah is alive, and the Messiah has sent the Holy Spirit, and that's why I'm able to speak before you right now without putting a foot in my mouth. You go back and you look at the life of Peter in the Gospels, and uh he's always making mistakes. It's the power of the Holy Spirit changing him and giving him the power to speak these words. And then in verse 34, for David did not ascend into heaven, but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore, let all of the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. This is bad news and it's good news at the same time. This was part of God's plan, but part of God's plan was answering the problem of our sin. And the problem of our sin is what put him on the cross. And yet he's alive. And because he's alive, that means something for you. Now, this quote again that he's quoting from David is something that Jesus also quoted with some of the Pharisees, and I'd like to revisit that. Matthew chapter 22, beginning at verse 41. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? And they said to him, the son of David. So they understood by the prophecies of the Old Testament that the Messiah would come through the line of David. He's the son of David. And then Jesus said to them, How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord? saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. I mean, if David is the king and the man, and we call him Lord because he's David, and through his line the Messiah would come, how is it that David is talking about the Messiah as if the Messiah was before him? And was one that put all things together until the right time and everything? How can you answer this? If David calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question him anymore. When the Lord asks us a question like that, do we just stand back and ignore it and say, obviously, this is blasphemy and we don't want to have anything to do with this man? Or do we go back and go, hmm, there is something there. There is a mystery there. What is it? And understanding that mystery is a key to what is going on here in Acts and in the church at large. Who is Jesus? He is the son of David, and yet David calls him his Lord. Because he is the Lord, the eternal king that will be on the throne of David forever. And that begins in the millennial reign. Well, back to our study then. In verse 37, now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. They were cut to the heart. As we understand the gospel, we we understand that we can't find salvation until we first find conviction. And conviction isn't something that we work up ourselves. Conviction is a gift from God. It's the Holy Spirit that comes upon you and says, wait a minute, there's some things missing in your life. Do you recognize what you have done? And Peter's making the case that, hey, you crucified this king. You crucified the Messiah. With the implication, of course, if you hadn't uh crucified the Messiah, then he would have set up his kingdom and everything would have been good. But because you guys messed up, you know. And that's that's part of not a full uh conviction that would be accurate. But you have to understand this is part of God's plan, Peter's also saying. Jesus had to come and die first for the sin of the world. Then he comes later and sets up the kingdom of God, sets up a millennial reign for a thousand years, and he's coming back. But he had to go through these steps first. But what does that mean to us? What does that mean to you, the audience that's listening? And and they responded, they felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit. They were cut to the heart. They recognized I am guilty before God. I have put him on the cross, I have sinned against the perfect holy God, and there's nothing that I can do to make myself right with him. That's where we need to start in finding salvation. Because if we think we're okay and that we don't need Jesus and we do enough good works, we're gonna make it. We've missed the message. But they caught the message, they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? What do we do? I mean, you you you obviously know the words of God, and and God has revealed some things to you. Well, what do we do? I want to be on God's good side, I don't want to be on his bad side, and I realize now with what you've said, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I've been convicted and cut to the heart. I'm I'm in bad shape. I need help. And Peter says, repent. Repent, turn, turn from your wicked ways and turn to Jesus. Not clean yourself up and come to Jesus. You turn to Jesus because you can't not do your wicked ways. I mean, if we're we're born sinners, what are we gonna do? We're gonna sin. But we also recognize that when we're cut to the heart and we're stuck in our sin, we recognize I'm stuck in my sin, I can't not sin. And so what do you do? You repent, you turn from that, and you desperately run after Jesus Christ, who has the answer, who will change us from the inside out, who will free us from our sin. But we can't be freed from our sin unless we recognize that we have it, and that we desperately need his help to be changed from it. So repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Luke really summarizes this very quickly. This whole idea of repentance and coming to God and being changed by Him and responding in baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit. Sometimes that takes a period of time, and sometimes that happens in an instant, like it does here, it seems to happen. Where when you are baptized in the name of Jesus, you're acknowledging what Jesus has done. Jesus has changed you. Do you recognize that you have been crucified with Christ? Do you see yourself on the cross with Jesus? Do you see your sin hanging there with him? And do you recognize that he has taken it from you? And now because your sin is dead, you are free in Christ to live sinless. Not that we're perfect, we're getting there, but he's working in us and he's changing us from grace to grace, from faith to faith. It's about him. Do we recognize that? Do we understand the cross? Do we understand the gospel? Have we surrendered to him and allowed him to do his work with us? Have we been baptized into Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit? And if we have, then we go out and we declare it publicly. We go out and we're we're we're baptized. We say, yes, I was once lost, but now I'm found. And I'm here to declare that I died with Christ and I've risen again with new life, and that's why I'm doing this baptism in front of everybody. Because that's part of other things that Paul talks about later. If you confess with your mouth and you believe in your heart that Jesus rose from the dead, then you will be saved. This idea that, yes, I died with Christ, so I will be baptized with him. And in the name of Jesus Christ, again, it's the name of Jesus. What does that represent? The name of the Lord, everything that encapsulates with it. When Luke accounts for that last sermon that Jesus gave before he ascended in Luke chapter 24, beginning of verse 26, Luke recounts that Jesus said to them, It is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin would be preached in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You see, this is basically the gospel. The Christ came for sinful men. He died, and he took the sin debt upon himself, and he rose again, so that when we repent and turn to him, we find remission of sin. And that is the name, that is the gospel that's to be proclaimed in his name. It's in the name of Jesus. But who is Jesus again? It's all who he represents, and he's part of the Trinity. That's why in Matthew, Matthew clarifies a little more chapter 28, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, and go therefore to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always till the end of the age. Amen. All these things are the same thing. You go and you proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, after you, of course, become saved, after you've been changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you go forth and you declare it. That's what Peter is saying, that's what Jesus was saying, and that's what we're called to do as well. And so back in Acts chapter 2, verse 40, and with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. Be saved from the ways of this world that are off the track. It's not on the way that leads to life. What's the way that leads to life? A better question is, who is the way that leads to life? Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by him. Repent from the wicked ways of this world that goes any way but Jesus' way. And follow the one that brings life. Then, verse 41, those who gladly received his word were baptized, and on that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. They had about 120 followers that were in that upper room when the Holy Spirit was poured out. And by the end of the day, there were over 3,000 followers that were added. So that would be 3,120 followers about. After one day of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit moved, didn't He? People were convicted, cut to the heart, weren't they? They heard the message that changes lives, and they were given hope and a new beginning and a new life. And then they started to live it out. In verse 42, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. It's a good basic thing for churches to do. To continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. What did the apostles teach? They taught from the word of God. They taught the Old Testament. They read letters that were written by other apostles and were acknowledged as written by the Holy Spirit. And today we have that completed in the New Testament. And so it's the idea that we go through the Word, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, seeking after God through the Apostles' doctrine, through the Word of God, and through fellowship, where we come together, where we encourage one another, where we build one another up, where we repeat the word back to each other. In the breaking of bread. There's something special about communing together. Not only having a lunch together or something, but breaking the bread of Christ together. The communion meal. Or Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me. Don't forget why you're doing this. Because you might get so excited about doing life together and everything, you forget all about me. And that happens, doesn't it? Individuals, we drift away from the Lord. Churches, we drift away from the Lord just to make the place more exciting and more whatever. We fall into the perversity of this world instead of seeking after the Lord. So we continue to break bread together and fellowship and pray together. We seek the Lord in his heart, not just saying, God, I want you to do this in my life, but God, what is your will for my life? What is your will for our group? What is the will for your church at large? Would you speak to us? Would you empower us? And we want to repeat those prayers back to you. Lord, may your will be done. We seek you. Seek first the kingdom of God. He'll add all these things to us. That's our heart, Lord. We want to seek you. We want to find you. We want to see you move in our midst and change us from the inside out. And then fear came upon every soul that many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Fear, a deep respect, a reverence to the power of God. It isn't about Peter. It's about the Lord that chose to use Peter after he was after Peter denied the Lord three times. And how many times have we denied the Lord? How many times have we fallen short of his glory? And yet he wants to use us. Do you have that fear of God that comes upon you? It's not about me, it's about you, Lord. And yes, Lord, I desire for you to work in my life. Yes, Lord, I desire to know your heart and your ways. And I once again surrender to you. Not my will, but your will be done. Not my ways, my thinking goes astray of yours, Lord. I need the mind of Christ. I need to be transformed by the renewing of the word. Would you show me your heart and your will so I can know you more? And in verse 44, now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as everyone had need. They realized that they were so much more than just a group that came together. They were the family of God, and they needed to look out for each other. And they were willing to give up whatever they had so that others could have what they needed. And so, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. They just delighted in the Lord. They said, Lord, your ways are best. Lord, we want to see you working more and more in our lives. Lord, have your way with us, use us, change us, guide and direct our every step, and we surrender to you. I ran into a verse, Psalm 105, verse 3. Glory in his name, and let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord. There's something about seeking after the Lord, glorifying his name, not our accomplishments, but his name, his accomplishments in our lives. And there's this joy as we seek the Lord and He's found by us. And he desires to work in our midst and do amazing things. Glory in His name. And let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord. And the Lord added to the church daily those who are being saved. You know, oftentimes when we talk about teaching the word and just evangelization, going out and declaring the good news of Jesus. I don't know about you, but I feel this kind of pressure on me. You've got to go out and you've got to declare the gospel, and you've got to bring people into the kingdom. But that's not what we see here, is it? Peter stood firm and in the power of the Holy Spirit. He declared the gospel, but he wasn't trying to change people. What was he trying to do? Declare the truth in the power of the Holy Spirit and let God do the convicting. The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. May the Lord add to the church. May the Lord use us and our willing hearts to be used by Him to allow us to be vessels through which the gospel is proclaimed, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, it it lands in ears and hearts that are cut to the heart. Where they they understand and they're changed. By the gospel and they come. It's not about us putting another mark in our Bibles about all the people that we led to the Lord. It's about how is the Lord going to use me to touch others? And when you really think about that, it's like, isn't that a great mystery? That He would use us to accomplish His purposes. Our broken clay, broken pots that really have no use in the Master's hand, except for the Master makes us useful. Which brings us back to the gospel, which brings us back to humbling ourselves as a child. Lord, it's it's really not me. It's all about you. And I'm so thankful that you would choose to use me in your grand um plan of bringing salvation to the world. And with that, we wrap up Peter's first sermon, which is still very applicable to us today. Do we recognize that we put Jesus on the cross? Are we cut to the heart? And do we allow him to come and change us from the inside out? Do we believe that not only our sin put him on the cross, but he willingly put himself on the cross? For the joy that lay before him, Christ endured the cross. The Lord went on our behalf and represented mankind on the cross and took the sin of all mankind upon himself, so the wrath of God could be poured on mankind, represented by Christ Himself, so that we could have the righteousness of God, the holiness of God, what is necessary to have fellowship with God. He made it all possible. Do we believe it? Do we trust him? Do we follow after him? Do we seek him? Do we say every day, Lord, once again I need you, and I surrender my all to you.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

That's Pastor Carl of the Mountain Cross on Come On Up. We're currently in the book of Acts, which was written by Luke, who came to know and follow Jesus through the Apostle Paul. Luke was a physician, a Gentile, and had never even met Jesus. Jesus' followers came from all walks of life: rich, poor, educated, illiterate, men, women, old, young. Jesus is for everyone. Why else would his original twelve disciples be a hodgepodge group of fishermen, a tax collector, a religious zealot, brothers who were known to rage, and Thomas, who we only know for his moment of doubt. That means Jesus is for you too. He came to earth to save whosoever would believe in the gospel. Christ died for sinners, was buried, and rose again. Do you believe? Learn more about God's amazing grace by clicking on How to Know God when you visit themountaincross.com. If you're local to Western North Carolina, we'd love to meet you in person and continue this discussion about the good news of Jesus Christ. We meet Sundays, 10 a.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville. Quickly, we'd also like to invite you to Faith Film Night, featuring faith-based films on the first Monday of the month. Learn more on our Facebook page, Faith Film Night. If you enjoy Come On Up, would you consider making a gift to help us continue? Simply visit themountaincross.com slash donate. Thank you. Come on up to the mountain with us again next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come On Up is sponsored by The Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.